Former President Donald Trump has been compelled to testify under oath by a congressional committee investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, which named the ex-president the “central cause”.
The special committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol voted to issue a legal summons for Trump to testify. If Trump does not comply with the subpoena, he could face criminal charges and imprisonment.
It marks the panel’s most aggressive move so far. The vote to subpoena Trump came after presenting a sweeping summation of its case, which included a dramatic new video.
“We have left no doubt – none – that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6,” said Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee.
“He tried to take away the voice of the American people in choosing their president and replace the will of the voters with his will to remain in power. He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from him.”
However, the subpoena for testimony and documents may prove a mostly symbolic gesture, given time constraints and his likely legal resistance.
Trump responded by attacking the committee and likely plans to fight it, meaning a direct clash with Trump is coming.
The panel showed that Trump knew he lost the election. Trump privately admitted to losing the 2020 election even as he worked to undermine and change the results, according to two top aides who testified before the January 6 committee.
Alyssa Farah, a former White House aide, said that a week after the election was called in favor of Biden, Trump was watching Biden on the television in the Oval Office, and said: “‘Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?’”
In another new clip of testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows shared that Trump told Meadows: “I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out.”
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